Chelsea - Reading Betting Preview: Expect Torres to lead the Blues to victory

By Al Hain-Cole

Having caught a taster of the Blues' attacking prowess away to Wigan, the Stamford Bridge crowd will be hoping to see some goals. Al Hain-Cole expects Torres to lead the way

With the European Super Cup and World Club Championships on the horizon, Chelsea's home game against Reading has been brought forward to accomodate the European champions' hectic fixture list.

Although the prospect of playing two league games in the space of four days may seem inconvenient so soon into the season, the match does give Roberto Di Matteo's men an early opportunity to go top of the Premier League table - and six points ahead of Manchester United.

Having practically secured a win within just seven minutes of their opening game at Wigan, the Blues are now expected to wrap up their first three home points against their newly-promoted opponents, at odds of 1/4 (1.25) with William Hill.

Brian McDermott's side will have taken a lot of heart from their last-gasp draw against Stoke on their return to the top-flight, but Reading are major 9/1 (10.00) underdogs to pick up a win tonight.

The last time that the Royals gained promotion to the top division they gained a creditable 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge in their thoroughly impressive debut Premier League season, and you can get odds of 5/1 (6.00) on them taking home a share of the spoils again this time.

The game against Wigan gave Chelsea fans a glimpse of some of their new array of young attacking stars, as Eden Hazard stole the show with an eye-catching performance and Oscar came off the bench to good effect.

With such a potent arsenal of goalscorers to defend against, Reading will be hard pressed not to suffer the same fate as Wigan in conceding early goals, and they should be up against it from the start.

With the bit between their teeth, Chelsea should be expected to be on top from start to finish, and seem a safe bet to lead at half-time before going on to win.

This bet would have been successful in three of the hosts' last four league games at home, and is available at odds of 7/10 (1.70).

Regardless of the exciting new forwards arriving at Stamford Bridge this summer, Chelsea's best 'new signing' could be a Fernando Torres who looks rejuvenated by his triumphant Euro 2012 campaign.

The Spanish striker scored his first hat-trick in English football against today's opposition five years ago, and should not be the prime candidate to get the ball rolling this evening.

You can back the Spaniard at 3/1 (4.00) to score the first goal in this one.

Al Hain-Cole is a Liverpool fan, experienced tipster and avid follower of European football. He specialises in accumulators and if you would like to read more from Al you can follow him on Twitter here.